


The Space Between Our Worlds

by charlesss



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/M, Family Feels, Gen, Introspection, Light Angst, also glimmer & adora & bow & micah are just mentioned, literally I don't know why I wrote this, there is very little plot involved here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-30 04:29:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20091295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charlesss/pseuds/charlesss
Summary: Mara and Angella are stuck between dimensions.At least they're together.





	The Space Between Our Worlds

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this instead of sleeping and also instead of working on more important writing projects so can i get a yee haw for procrastination?

There is no light or darkness, just eternity. Everything seems to exist in an ambiguous state, not quite this or that. Nothing really moves, not even when the wind blows. It stretches out around you and behind you and in front of you, calling out your past and outlining your future. Not that either of them have one here.

Sometimes, she thinks she sees her daughter's face in the stagnant sky. She looks up, and the clouds seem to form her visage, clear as day. Other times, she thinks she's going insane. Mostly, she thinks she's losing it. It is only the presence of another that keeps her grounded, though she wonders how Mara could have possibly stayed sane here on her own for so long.

On the other hand, time doesn't quite exist here either, so she may not have been alone for long. She should ask, but it seems rude.

"It's nice," Mara says, apparently reading her mind, "to have someone else."

"Yes," Angella agrees. "I can't imagine the loneliness of being here alone."

"I wouldn't want you to."

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault."

They fall silent again, staring out at the sea. It's the oceans today. Yesterday it was the forest, or was that this morning?

The landscape never seems to change, but it is different sometimes. She can't explain that yet. She isn't sure she wants to. This entire place feels dead, probably because it is. It's the space between dimensions, where she is so close and so far from home.

She wonders if Glimmer sees her face in the same way she sees hers. Part of her wants to be missed, to be contemplated. The other part of her hopes that her daughter can let go, find solace in her friends and her people. Either way, she feels guilty, leaving her alone like this. At least she has her aunt.

Oh, she hates the silence.

"Tell me about yourself," Angella says. "Where did you grow up? Not on Etheria, I imagine."

"No, not here," she confirms. "It's… it's very far from here. I hardly remember it anymore."

"No?"

"Well, I remember some things. My friends, my family, the landscapes we used to visit and stare at. I doubt any of it exists anymore, certainly not as I remember it."

"That's…" Angella sighs, a deep sense of understanding in her heart. Every morning as she looked out at her kingdom, she saw it destroyed, picked apart by the selfish Horde. The thought terrified her, and consumed her. "That's terrible."

"Yes," Mara stares at the ground. Her expression is unreadable, though now that she looks, Angella can see so much of Adora in her. The two are so similar, and Angella has to wonder if Mara once had the same passion and drive that Adora has now.

She can ask later.

The landscape is different again. The foliage that has sprung up around them is unfamiliar to her, and the sky is full of stars. This is not Etheria. Is this what Mara saw in her years of solitude? How torturous it must have been to seem so close to home, yet to know you could never really go back.

Truthfully, Angella is thankful for the brief unfamiliarity. She doesn't feel the urge to get up and spread her wings, fly over the land she knows so well, fly until she's home, with Glimmer and her friends. The temptation (and resulting resignation) tore away at her when the portal first closed.

Does Mara feel that same temptation as she stares out at her home? Or has she moved past the illusion by now? Angella could see it going either way.

"You're a First One, yes?" she tries to wait before changing the topic. Mara nods.

"We were… settlers. We wanted to study Etheria, understand its magic. It didn't end well."

Angella knows that tone. It's not exactly an invitation to keep asking questions. She's used that tone before, when she talked about Micah after he passed. Whatever happened, Mara is still grieving. Still in pain.

"Whatever happened, I'm sure it was not your fault."

"Mm." 

They fall silent again. Angella is only just getting used to this, the silence interrupted by tidy little snippets of what could be a conversation. It passes the time, if you could call it that, and it's better than the prolonged and uncomfortable nothing that would occur instead.

Angella watches the sky, counting each star. She loses track fairly quickly, but that's okay. She doesn't really want to know how many of them are up there, she's just enjoying them. She begins to imagine shapes up there - constellations, they're called. She manages to see Micah, standing stiff but tall in the night sky. She looks down again, deciding to be done.

There are no shortage of stars for her now.

"Do you ever blame yourself for things you know aren't your fault?" Angella asks, seeing Micah again now, marching off to battle for the last time. She didn't know that at the time, of course. And she's romanticizing a bit; he didn't really march so much as walk. But she was allowed to romanticize this.

"We aren't just our mistakes," Mara sighs. Angella sees her lean back and lie down on the grass. "If we can let go of what we are to blame for, what's holding us to the things we had no part in?"

"I suppose you would say that," it just slips out, not exactly malicious. It isn't kind, either, but this doesn't register to either of them for a moment.

"I did what I had to to save Etheria," Mara doesn't quite sound defensive, but she isn't as calm as she was earlier. There's a fire in her, rekindling ever so slightly as they speak now.

"I'm sure you did," Angella had heard Mara's message secondhand as it was repeated to her by Glimmer. Everybody is trying to do the right thing for someone, but rarely is that understood by those being saved. Would Angella even be here if Mara hadn't brought Etheria through the portal?

Perhaps it doesn't matter. She's here, and she won't be leaving.

"When I did what I did, I know I wouldn't be remembered well. I wasn't sure I'd be remembered at all."

"I think you will be," Angella thinks of Glimmer, of Bow and Adora, who know of Mara and her good intentions in isolating Etheria. They may be some of the only people who do remember Mara, and certainly some of the only people who truly knew Angella.

Mara hums softly, a wordless response. There is hope in there, she thinks, and a sort of peace.

If they die here, or if they live forever in this state of un-living, they will be remembered. Somewhere, they are known. And somewhere, they were loved.

Angella is okay with that.


End file.
